1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a portable electronic device, and particularly to a portable electronic device having two slots different in width so as to allow insertion of many different kinds of recording medium drives.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable electronic devices have rapidly come into widespread use in response to a reduction in size and an advance in function of electronic equipment. The portable electronic devices are superior in portability owing to their lightness and compactness. A notebook personal computer as a kind of such portable electronic devices is designed relatively compactly at a low cost, so that there is a limit to the number of peripheral devices that can become standard components upon shipment. Accordingly, after purchasing notebook personal computers, many users are obliged to expand the computers by individually adding peripheral devices as they need for the purpose of improvement in function of the computers.
In another kind if personal computer having a sufficient space inside a body case, such as a desktop personal computer, expansion of the computer is carried out by inserting a desired adapter, card into an expansion slot on an system board. However in the case of a notebook personal computer, a packaging density in its body housing is greatly high and no sufficient space is left, so that insertion of an adapter card is not practical. Because of the compactness, lightness, and portability of a notebook personal computer, it is increasingly used at places where a commercial power is not available. In this case, the notebook personal computer is driven by a rechargeable battery inserted in a slot defined in the body of the computer.
For enhancement of computer""s capabilities, there has been proposed a notebook personal computer having two slots for accommodating a battery and a recording medium drive such as a floppy disk drive and a CD-ROM drive. Usually the battery is inserted into one of the two slots, and the CD-ROM drive is inserted into the other slot. In comparing the width of the battery and the width of the CD-ROM drive, they are not equal to each other, but the width of the CD-ROM drive is generally larger than the width of the battery. Accordingly, the two slots formed in the body of the notebook personal computer have different widths. That is, the width of the first slot for insertion of the battery is smaller than the width of the second slot for insertion of the CD-ROM drive.
For realization of long-term driving of the notebook personal computer, it is required to provide a notebook personal computer capable of simultaneously mounting a standard battery (first battery) and a second battery. The standard battery is usually inserted into the first slot, and the second battery is usually inserted into the second slot wider than the first slot. Accordingly, the second battery having a shape corresponding to the shape of the second slot is provided by battery makers.
In this case, it is necessary for the battery makers to develop two kinds of batteries having different shapes, causing an increase in developing cost and no mass-production effects. As a result, the second battery unavoidably becomes expensive. There has been proposed another battery mounting structure allowing two batteries of the same kind to be mounted. In this structure, the standard battery is mounted on a tray having a width equal to the width of the second slot, and this tray is then inserted into the second slot. However, the tray has a large depth, so that when the tray is inserted into the second slot, the tray projects from the body of the notebook personal computer, resulting in an increase in overall external size of the computer.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electronic device having a first slot for accommodating a battery or a first recording medium drive and a second slot for accommodating the battery with an attachment attached to a side surface thereof or a second recording medium drive having a width larger than that of the first recording medium drive.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a low-cost battery attachment having a simple structure which can be attached to a side surface of a battery to allow the battery to be inserted into the wider second slot of an electronic device.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic device comprising a first accommodating portion for removably accommodating a first component unit having a first width, the first accommodating portion having the first width; and a second accommodating portion for removably accommodating any one of a second component unit having a second width larger than the first width and the first component unit with an attachment attached to a side surface thereof for adding a width to the first width to obtain the second width.
Preferably, the first component unit includes a battery or a first recording medium drive. For example, the first recording medium drive is selected from the group consisting of a floppy disk drive and a super disk drive. Preferably, the second component unit includes a second recording medium drive selected from the group consisting of a CD-ROM drive and a hard disk drive.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an attachment adapted to be attached to a component unit for removable use with an electronic device, comprising an engaging member for engaging the component unit; the attachment having a width set so that when the attachment is attached to a side surface of the component unit by the engaging member, a total width of the attachment and the component unit is equal to a width of an accommodating portion provided in the electronic device for removably accommodating the component unit.
Preferably, the attachment further comprising an elongated portion having a first width; and a head portion having a second width larger than the first width; the second width being set so that the sum of the second width and a width of the component unit is equal to a width of the accommodating portion at its opening exposed to the outside of the electronic device.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component unit for removable use with an electronic device, comprising an engaging member for engaging an attachment; the component unit having a width set so that when the attachment is attached to a side surface of the component unit by the engaging member, a total width of the component unit and the attachment is equal to a width of an accommodating portion provided in the electronic device for removably accommodating the component unit.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention and the manner of realizing them will become more apparent, and the invention itself will best be understood from a study of the following description and appended claims with reference to the attached drawings showing some preferred embodiments of the invention.